[BN] the know

Buffalo murder suspect arrested

City police have arrested a murder suspect in a previously unsolved homicide that occurred last May 19.

Demario L. Smith, 25, was arrested Thursday morning by Homicide Detective Christopher Sterlace on a charge of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Shaquille R. Woods as the victim was talking to occupants of a parked vehicle at Massachusetts and Shields avenues, Chief of Detectives Dennis J. Richards told The Buffalo News.

Woods died in Buffalo General Hospital of a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Assisting Sterlace in the months-long investigation were Detectives Jeff R. Weyand, Scott R. Malec, Brian G. Ross and Patricia Wrest, Chief Richards said. Smith is being held in the Erie County Holding Center without bail pending further court and grand jury action in the case, Richards said.

On Monday, Homicide Squad Detectives James Lema and Salvatore Valvo charged Laquann Morgan, 21, in the unrelated fatal shooting of Adrian L. Huggins Jr., 25, on Jan. 8. He died ten days later in Erie County Medical Center.

Huggins had just gotten out of a friend’s car when witnesses said a gunman fired repeatedly into the vehicle.